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Daily Links – April 10, 2012

Today is April 10th. On this date in 1849, Walter Hunt patented the safety pin. He sold the patent mere hours later for $400. Hunt was a prolific inventor, having received patents for a fountain pen, a sewing machine, and even a pre-Winchester repeating rifle. Coincidentally, it was this date in 1790 that the very first U.S. Patent Office was established. I once invented something too: a chili spaghetti taco. No word from the patent office yet. Also on this date, in 1912, the RMS Titanic set sail on her famous, fateful voyage. If that terrible disaster taught us anything, it’s that Rose will NOT make room for you on her precious debris. And finally, today is International Be Kind To Lawyers Day, for some reason. Activities include not making the joke that if you lined up all the lawyers in the world end to end, 2/3 of them would drown, and synchronized chasing of ambulances. Consider this an Open Thread.

Buffett Rule is Calculated Distraction from Obama’s Failed Leadership | The Foundry
“What do you do when you’re losing a debate? Change the subject. That’s really all you need to know to understand President Obama’s resuscitation of his infamous ‘Buffett Rule’ that would impose a minimum 30 percent effective tax rate on businesses and families earning $1 million.”

Horrific story of the British child bride | Mail Online
“Mrs Shah said she believed she was being dressed for her fifth birthday party on the day of the Islamic ceremony which effectively ended her childhood.”

Totalitarianism marches on | What’s Wrong With The World
“What we can be sure of is that direct regulation of home school content to enforce ‘tolerance’ is a goal of a not-inconsiderable slice of the left-wing intelligentsia and that it will come to the United States as soon as they are able to make it happen.”

Celebs Call For Civil Disobedience Against Rich | Big Hollywood
“So they shot a video extolling the virtues of the Occupy Wall Street movement and detailing plains to train the ’99 percent’ in civil disobedience tactics for 2012 and beyond.”

Today’s Word of the Day comes via Merriam-Webster.picaresque (pik-uh-RESK): adjective Of or relating to rogues or rascals; also : of, relating to, suggesting, or being a type of fiction dealing with the episodic adventures of a usually roguish protagonist